Terror suspects' detention warning

Friday 26 January 2007 00:07 BST

The detention without trial by the United States of terrorist suspects seized around the world has "serious implications" for Britain's secret intelligence-sharing relationship with the Americans, MPs have warned.

The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) accused the US of ignoring restrictions placed on the use of intelligence about two British residents detained at Guantanamo Bay after being seized in Africa.

While the ISC cleared MI5 and MI6 of any direct involvement in the US programme of "rendition", it said that the agencies had been "slow" to understand the way the policy developed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Following a year-long inquiry, the ISC said the "secret detention" of suspects without legal representation amounted to "mistreatment" and warned that ministers should never approve any involvement by the UK in such operations.

The ISC report highlighted the case of Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna - both UK residents although neither had British citizenship - who were arrested in The Gambia in November 2002. They were taken by the Americans to their interrogation facility at the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, and subsequently transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

Shortly before their arrival, MI5 sent a telegram to the US authorities describing them as "Islamists" and disclosing that a search of their baggage at Gatwick Airport had uncovered a "home-made electronic device" which may be a timer for a car bomb.

The telegram however stated that the information was for "research and analysis purposes only and may not be used as the basis for overt, covert or executive action". The ISC said that MI5 fully expected this caveat to be honoured by the US intelligence agencies as this was "fundamental" to their intelligence-sharing relationship.

The rendition of the two men in the face of protests by MI5 and the Government had shown a "lack of regard" on the part of the Americans for British concerns, the ISC said. "This has serious implications for the working of the relationship between the US and UK intelligence and security agencies," the report said.

"What the rendition programme has shown is that in what it refers to as 'the war on terror' the US will take whatever action it deems necessary, within US law, to protect its national security from those it considers to pose a serious threat. "Although the US may take note of UK protests and concerns, this does not appear materially to affect its strategy on rendition."

The ISC report acknowledged that Britain's intelligence-sharing relationships - including with the US - were "critical" to countering the global terrorist threat and "must continue" It said that the UK agencies now had arrangements in place to minimise the risks of their actions inadvertently leading to rendition, torture, or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.